Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-03-26
The Financial Condition.
National Republican.

/ The FINANCIAL COndltlOA
National Republican.
IL the late Secretary of the Treasury
Mr.. Manning, was accurate in his est
mates, and it is to be presumed that h
was, there will be. paid into the treasury
during the next fiscal year an average Of
ten million dollars each month, more
than can be disbursed under any exist
ing law. There can be no bond calls
during that year because by the first Of
July all the bonds that are due will be
paid, and the result will be that an
enormous sum OF money will in q few
months be withdrawn from circulation.
Any one who has the slightest knowl-
edge of the finances and needs of the
country cannot help seeing that this
withdrawal of money from active use will
result in very great hardships and almost
certainly produce financial panic, carry
ing widespread ruin.
The report Of the comptroller OF the
currency shows that the circulating
medium of the country, including gold,
silver, legal tender and bank notes, gold
and silver certificates, amounts in round
numbers to about eighteen hundred
million dollars, which would indicate
thirty dollars per capita, sum too small
to transact the business of the country.
But these figures do not indicate the
circulating medium, for the reserves must
be deducted before we can determine the
actual amount of money in use. The
coin held in the treasury as reserve
fund, the gold and silver held in the
treasury representing outstanding GER
tifcates, the national bank reserves, the
legal tender notes, held to redeem
national bank notes, and the national
bank notes held Tor the same purpose,
all taken together, amount to one-half
the sum mentioned, and reduce the
actual circulating medium to $500, 600, 900,
or only fifteen dollars per capita.
England has twenty-eight and France
forty dollars per capita circulation. In
this country large sums, amounting per-
haps to ten per cent. of the currency, are
continually withdrawn from circulation
by being in transmission from one section
to another, so that in reality our per
capita allowance is less than half that of
England, and only one-third that of
France.
From September to March all the great
agricultural products OF this country,
wheat, corn, hay, cotton, and tobacco, are
transported from the place of production
to the markets and the place of consump-
ton, and the largest possible amount of
money is needed for that purpose. If
there is scarcity of money, the price of
these products is necessarily reduced, and
the agriculturists, who constitute the
great body of the people, are compelled
to suffer serious loss.
The imbecility of the Democratic House
of Representatives prevented the enact
ment of any law by which the income
could be reduced, and defeated every
measure like the Blair educational bill,
the Notifications and navy bills, the river
and harber bill, by which portion at
least of the immense accumulations could
be expended.
It has been suggested that the treasury
could enter the market and buy the unma-
tured bonds, and thus prevent money
panic, but there is no law authorizing any
such action, and no Secretary OF the
Treasury would dare do this without a
positive law directing it.
There is but one possible remedy, and
that is the calling of the fftieth Congress
together, in the pope that it will have
more sense than it's predecessor and
provide for the necessary reduction of
the taxes. But to secure that it will be
necessary for the House to select some
man as speaker who will not, as Mr..
Carlisle did, usurp authority to prevent
any action that did not coincide exactly
with his views.
President Cleveland did all in his
power by repeatedly calling the attention
Of Congress to the situation, and, as the
urgency is now greater than ever before,
we have no doubt that he will do his duty
in the premises.